Charles Street Inn Gets Step Closer to Sale

If all goes as planned, Charles Street Inn will be no more as of the end of the year. 

Owner Louise Vendon said that she is selling the 94 Charles St. property because she would like to spend more time with her partner in Provincetown. She has prospective buyers in Brent Berc and Will Avanessian, who together compromise Boston Real Estate Collaborative, a company that owns several apartment buildings in the city.

The sale is conditional on the buyers getting zoning approval to turn the 10-room inn into a building with nine apartments available for short-term rental. Although the inside of the building would be altered, the buyers said they would try to preserve as much detailing as possible and would not change the exterior of the building at all. 

Vendon and the buyers got one step closer to their goal at Wednesday night's meeting of the Beacon Hill Civic Association's Zoning and Licensing Committee. The committee, which does not have the power to issue or deny variances but whose vote goes to the BHCA's executive board that communicates to the city's ZBA, voted not to oppose the application.

Berc and Avanessian needed variances involving parking spaces, since the inn only has two dedicated spaces and zoning bylaws require .7 spaces per apartment, and square footage requirements. The group wants to build four 350 square-foot studios, four 420 square-foot one-bedrooms and one larger two-bedroom unit. The current requirement for apartments is that they have at least 525 square feet. 

The concept for the new apartment building is furnished, high-end rentals for periods ranging from three months to a year, but Berc and Avanessian wouldn't be bound to those time limits.

The rent would range from $2,700 to $4,000 for the studio and one-bedroom apartments to $4,500 to $5,500 for the two-bedroom. The men said they are targeting doctors and patients at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as other people looking for short-term furnished rentals. 

The issue of the most concern involved trash pickup, but Berc and Avanessian said they will have a building manager make sure the trash is brought out and picked up in the mornings on designated collection days. 

Charles Street Inn has operated as a hotel since 2000. Before that, the building had been used in a variety of ways since it was built in 1860.